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Rhetorical Devices In I Had A Dream Speech

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In the speech “I Had a Dream” the speaker Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks to the crowd of his own kind and explains how they are not treated equally. During the occasion of the speech, African Americans were treated poorly by the white people. The major influence of this speech was to help persuade his people to not give up their fight for an equal chance to be as equal as any human being. In every line that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks, he discusses the changes that were slowly happening and how his people must not give up. His tone is strong with the feelings of hope he has for the future. In a hope that they will achieve the freedom they have been wanting since their enslavement. The words that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, he appeals to all three logical appeals to catch his audience’s attention and appeal: ethos, logos, and pathos. He uses imagery of what happened in the past to appeal to pathos to help those who want to help the colored people to understand why the african americans shouldn’t be treated any less than …show more content…

Martin Luther King Jr. began, most of them started of similar for example he used the phrase “ I Had a Dream”. That phrase had the most impact for his whole speech. The anaphora “ I Had a Dream” was a rhetorical appeal to help other people be drawn to the powerful words he spoke after that phrase. In some of his sentences of his speech, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr included multiple allusions to help bring more feeling to his words. One anaphora includes “ Let us not wallow in the valley of despair” which is a biblical reference for Psalms 23. For his starting sentence he mentions The Gettysburg Address with “ Five score years ago..” Most the speech includes multiple anaphoras. One the other most memorable is where he referenced “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” to help give the people some imagery of the future where everyone will be treated with respect and not judged by the colour of their

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He wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and wrote his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. He was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the biggest visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement. This man was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In both of his writings, he used pathos and logos to appeal to the audience and fit the occasion.

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“I Have A Dream” “I Have A Dream”, a quote that many Americans hold dear to their hearts and a quote that is remembered and is associated with an unforgettable movement in history of the Untied States of America. From 1954-1968 one of the most memorable movements in history took place and will not be forgotten is the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the many greats remembered and recognized in the movement for being an influential leader of his time. Having given over 2000 speeches, MLK(Martin Luther King) has one particular speech that stands out from the many and it is his “I Have A Dream” speech. MLK’s message being about peace, unity, fairness and freedom for and to all people shines through in this speech.

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Dr. Martin Luther King uses rhetoric his “I Have a Dream” speech in order to persuade the nation to condemn segregation. His speech focuses on the injustices his people endured and the need for equality. Dr. King does not entice the crowd with negative messages but hopeful words. He utilizes ethos, pathos, and logos through the incorporation of his faith, analogies and symbols of Democracy.

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On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr gave us one of one of the most rhetorically moving speeches ever given. Titled as the “I Have a Dream Speech,” he read this speech to the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”. As a civil right mover he gave this great speech to all Americans (black and white) so that he could give off the idea of equality on the same level. Because of his crowd of mix races King made sure to make his speech imploring to all no matter what the race that they may be. He uses metaphorical imagery, powerful diction,and symbolism to create an impact on the audience.

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During the era of the civil rights movements in the 60s, among the segregation, racism, and injustice against the blacks, Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial to deliver one of the greatest public speeches for freedom in that decade. In Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech he effectively uses ethos, diction and powerful metaphors to express the brutality endured by African American people. Yet his most important method of reaching his audience, and conveying his enduring message of equality and freedom for the whole nation was his appeal to pathos. With these devices, King was able to move thousands of hearts and inspire the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Opening his speech Martin Luther King Jr. sets up his credibility with his use of ethos, referring to the Declaration of Independence saying, “This note was a promise that all men… would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life.”

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“I Have a Dream” Doctor Martin Luther King Junior’s infamous speech could be said is so powerful because of its strong use of rhetoric. There’s evidence of irony, oxymoron, symbolism, connotation, but the easiest to pick out in this speech is the use of metaphor, hyperbole and anaphora. A metaphor is a comparison in which something is said to be figuratively something else. A good example of this in Dr. King’s speech is provided in the first few lines where he calls the Emancipation Proclamation a “great beacon light of hope”.

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Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most influential African-American activists in American History and was a key participant in the Civil Rights movement, the goal of which was to provide full civil rights to all rights in America. MLK has written many, many speeches and letters in favor of the Civil Rights movement in America, the most famous of them being his legendary “I Have a Dream” Speech and the monumental “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. To attempt to gain support for his cause, MLK employs the use of emotional appeals, also known as pathos, and logical appeals, also known as logos, which aid to stir emotion and reasoning in the listener. It is more than obvious that MLK tends to tug at the heartstrings of his listeners with his emotionally charged language essential to his success. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses more powerful and plentiful examples of pathos in his literature, examples of which being his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, than logos due to the more powerful emotional connection they carry which can convince his listeners to sympathize with his civil rights movement.

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In the two stories written by Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have A Dream”, and “Letter From Birmingham Jail” were two stories that truly impacted history. These two readings talk about one being about King Jr. tell his speech on the footsteps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., about him having a dream, where blacks and whites can unite. In both writings by King Jr., mostly in his “I Have A Dream” speech, King Jr. uses a lot of persuasive techniques, mostly pathos.

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The speech we all heard on August 28, 1963 brought us together on that day and changed our whole perspective on one another. In Martin Luther King's speech "I Have a Dream," the author uses his experiences to show humanity that we should all choose peace and be united, and have a voice of freedom to prove the importance of equality. The devotees of civil rights, ‘When will you be satisfied?’ We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” Martin Luther King chose peace over war because, in the end, we all live around each other.

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King also discusses his personal life, along with his family and children, to show the crowd that he is fighting for the same things as them. In his I Have a Dream speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. used ethos to increase his credibility with his audience, pathos to appeal to his audience’s emotional side, and logos to appeal to his audience’s logical side. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s use of ethos begins in the first few lines of his I Have a Dream speech. He begins the speech with a direct reference to Abraham Lincoln and his Gettysburg Address. King speaks of Lincoln as an admired figure in the Civil Rights Movement when he states “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation” (King 84).

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Martin Luther King Jr. was an important figure in gaining civil rights throughout the 1960’s and he’s very deserving of that title as seen in both his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” letter. In both of these writings Dr. King uses logos - logical persuasion - and pathos - emotional appeal - to change the opinions of people who were for segregation and against civil rights. Although King was arrested for a nonviolent protest, he still found a way to justify his actions with the use of logos and pathos. MLK uses both ways to gain the attention and agreement of the audience but, he uses pathos not just more, but in a more relatable way in order to appeal to his audience.

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On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a famous speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and freedom, this speech was called “I have a dream.” This speech was focused on ending racism and equal rights for African Americans during the civil rights movement. He displays a great amount of pathos, logos, and ethos in his speech. Martin Luther King Jr. displays pathos by targeting the audience’s emotion by talking about his American dream that could also be other peoples too. He shows logos by giving a sense of hope to the people that better things will come in time.

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In 1963, Martin Luther King J.R. wrote a letter in the margins of a newspaper from within the bars of his jail cell in Birmingham. This letter, known as “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, was written as a response to criticism received from eight clergymen regarding the protest that King was arrested for. In that same year, King gave a powerful speech to a large crowd gathered in Washington D.C., at the Lincoln Memorial. This speech, easily recognized as the “I Have a Dream” speech, addressed the cruelty of segregation and unfair ways of which most people were treated, and influenced hope within his audience. In these two writings, examples of both logos and pathos can be found, and although the writings are comparable, they are not completely the same.

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